Homepage

Team of the Week: Easy pickings

Mon, 04 Nov 2013 11:29

We only had two big games to select from, but we still produced an impressive array of talent in our famous weekly selection.

As was to be expected the dominance by New Zealand and England were rewarded.

The All Blacks and English both produced six players each in our starting XV.

There is some reward for Japan's bravery, with two of their players cracking the nod, while only one Australian made the cut.

There's further reward for the Kiwis and English in our back-up squad - six Poms and five All Blacks.

Australia and Japan also have two each bubbling under.

Team of the Week - November, Round One:

15 - Mike Brown (England):
Forget, for one minute, about his foot in touch incident. Look at the rest of the game and you ill see the real difference between the two teams.Bubbling under: Israel Folau (Australia)

14 - Charles Piutau (New Zealand):
The opposition may have been Japan, but he showed an ability to be at the right place at the right time and then finish it off.Bubbling under: Adam Ashley-Cooper (Australia)

13 - Ben Smith (New Zealand):
His evolution - from fullback to midfielder - is far from complete, but the journey so far has been impressive.Bubbling under: Joel Tomkins (England)

12 - Francis Saili (New Zealand):
A lot of traffic went his way and he missed just one of his tackles, while he made some decent metres on one or two occasion.Bubbling under: Craig Wing (Japan)

11 - Frank Halai (New Zealand):
Not much competition on his side of the field.Bubbling under: Marland Yarde (England)

9 - Fumiaki Tanaka (Japan):
His defence may not have been as good as it should have been, but allround he had a sound game and his Super Rugby experience shone through.Bubbling under: Ben Youngs (England)

8 - Billy Vunipola (England):
Did not miss a single tackle and was powerful with ball in hand.Bubbling under: Richie McCaw (New Zealand)

7 - Chris Robshaw (England):
Not only did he have the highest tackle count in the match, but managed a few decent carries and won a line-out.Bubbling under: Michael Broadhurst (Japan)

6 - Tom Wood (England):
He did miss one tackle (one only), but had a huge tackle count, some impressive carries and won a number of line-outs.Bubbling under: Steven Luatua (New Zealand)

5 - James Horwill (Australia):
One of the few Wallabies to have emerged with his reputation unscathed.Bubbling under: Dominic Bird (New Zealand)

4 - Jeremy Thrush (New Zealand):
Took him a while to get there, but at 28 he showed he is not out of his depth at international rugby. Did miss a couple of tackles, but otherwise solid.Bubbling under: Joe Launchbury (England)

2 - Shota Horie (Japan):
Japan will be much more competitive if more of their players ply their trade in Super Rugby like he does.Bubbling under: Dylan Hartley (England)

1 - Mako Vunipola (England):
The puzzled look on Ben Alexander's face said it all - he had no clue. Not surprising one English front row forward mocked the Wallabies at the end with a: 'This ain't no disco dance.'Bubbling under: Wyatt Crockett (New Zealand)